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to it, seems superfluous; since the people of that country have been distinguished for the efforts which at former periods they have made to acquire some share of book-learning. do not mean to say that education was at any period common among them, or that knowledge was at any time greatly diffused; but it is certain that individuals in the lowest situation of life, in order to acquire information, have struggled with the difficulties of their lot, and begged their bread rather than suffer themselves to remain in total ignorance*. Every one has heard of the hedge schools, so common in Ireland, where crowds of poor children on the side of the road are taught to read and write. In every instance where the Irish language is taught, and where there is no offence given to the prejudices of the natives, parents discover the utmot solicitude to have their offspring instructed, and almost universally send them to school. Wherever I travelled in Ireland, the poor in their cabins regretted the want of teachers, and seemed very anxious to afford their children some learning,

It appears then that no serious obstacles.

*I was astonished to find in the wildest part of Donnegalshire, a man with neither shoes nor stockings, who gave me a very clear and correct account of the peculiarities of Irish grammar.

oppose the introduction of parochial schools into Ireland. The people are willing to receive them; school-masters may easily be procured; and a government of so many resources as the British can scarcely grudge the money expended in their support. It should be recollected, however, that every thing depends on those under whose superintendence such schools must in some degree be placed.

SECTION III.

On the Utility of Preaching in the Irish Language.

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HAVE adverted so frequently to the propriety of instructing the people of Ireland through the medium of their own language, that it is unnecessary to enter into any farther disquisitions on the subject. If, however, preaching be considered as a most popular and efficient means of communicating knowledge, and if the best system of national education be deemed incomplete without it, the manner in which it is conducted in the protestant church in Ireland, and its perfect inutility while it is thus conducted to a great part of the Irish population, merits the most serious attention.

While the repose of the Roman Catholic Church remained undisturbed in that country, the priests, except a very few who were within the English pale, understood the Irish language: and though, from the custom of the religious body with which they were connected, they performed divine service in the Latin tongue, they were able to recommend them

selves to the people by speaking that which was vernacular. When episcopacy, however, was established in place of the old religion, owing partly to a difficulty of procuring proper pastors, and partly owing to the prejudices of the English, the churches were supplied with ministers who were not only ignorant of the tongue which the great majority of the people understood, but affected to despise it as what they called the language of Catholicism, and of the wild Irish. This prejudice was increased prodigiously after the termination of the civil war, which was concluded by the treaty of Limerick: the penal laws which before this period were scarcely felt, were now rigorously put in execution; and the intellectual, and moral, and religious claims of the unfortunate Irish, were from this 'era totally disregarded. To the present day there is not one clergyman in the Established Church of Ireland, who preaches in that dialect in which alone they can be intelligible to most of their people *.

There seems to be only two ways in which this evil can be remedied: the one is, by obliging every clergyman who is presented to a living where the Irish is spoken, to acquire

* This remark is obviously to be restricted to those parts of Ireland where the Trish is spoken.

that language so as to be able to preach through its medium; the other is to employ dissenters or presbyterians from Scotland, who are acquainted with the Gaelic. As to the first of these methods, it is not very likely that it will ever be followed; if it were adopted, however, the happy effects which must result are incalculable. It would present the Established Church, to that part of the Irish population who only understand the Irish language, in a light in which they have never been accustomed to view her. The clergy would acquire an influence and popularity with the people, of the extent of which they are not at present aware; and the most efficient means of reforming the multitude, and of converting them from the errors of popery, would be fairly placed within their power. Though the execution of this plan is certainly attended with difficulties, these do not seem to be insuperable. It is competent for the legislature to say, that in any specified district after a certain period, no clergyman can be considered qualified to accept of a living, unless he is able to preach in the Irish tongue.

The second plan is, perhaps, the more practicable, and its execution, therefore, is the more probable. In this country there are many from the Highlands educated for the church of Scotland, who, if supported by govern-

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